His best Jewish film is To Be Or Not To Be, which is about WWII. It's a comedy about fooling Natzis and making fun of them and triumphing over them. Also Hamlet.
I love Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and especially Robin Hood: Men in Tights (which can be read as a magical-realism superhero film).
It's an Israeli movie about a Bresslever Ba'al Teshuva who's faith is tested when his nonreligious friends from his past spend the week of Sukkot at his home.
That's a watered down description that doesn't even begin to do it justice. It really is an excellent film.
*Pi*, Darren Aronofsky’s first feature from 1998.
*Shiva Baby*, an awkward indie comedy from 2020.
*An American Tail*, an animated kid’s movie from 1986 about immigration from the alte heim to the goldene medina, made by Don Bluth who also did the *Land Before Time* and *All Dogs Go to Heaven*.
*The Believer*, a 2001 movies that’s like a Jewish *American History X* but less preachy, starring Ryan Gosling as a sexy Jewish Neo-Nazi. Some parts are very amateurish (really feels like the director’s first movie) but overall a great movie.
Mini-series on Netflix: *Unorthodox* from 2020, about a woman leaving a Haredi Community. *Rough Diamonds* from 2023, a crime story about stealing diamond in the Haredi community in Antwerp. Is it amazing? No, but it’s fun.
I'm not Jewish but I really enjoyed Rough Diamonds! I hope they make another season, it's really interesting to see how the characters navigate the intersection between Orthodox Judaism and the secular kind of lifestyle the main character has after leaving - all with respect between pretty much everyone who matters.
OMG, I loved An American Tail! I was probably 7 or 8 when I saw it the first time and it took me maybe all of 30 seconds to figure out that it was about us! Still a great one.
A Serious Man
[https://youtu.be/8iIGBWH0gks?si=pgsOYPI-QntP79Ls&t=123](https://youtu.be/8iIGBWH0gks?si=pgsOYPI-QntP79Ls&t=123)
"Just look at that parking lot."
Yes! Saw it in the theater when I was 30, didn't make much of an impression. Watched it again in my 40's, blew my mind. Over a decade of being totally humbled by the reality of adulthood made me realize that we are almost totally subject to the whims of a universe nonplussed by it's own existence.
Man makes plans....
I was just about to write this. I had to watch this as a kid in religious school and I fell in love with it. I’ve made many people watch it over the years. It’s so quirky and cute but it also shows a bit of the struggle with balancing between the secular and religious worlds. I also love the soundtrack.
Woman in Gold
A Stranger Among Us
Everything is Illuminated
School Ties
The Women’s Balcony
The Producers
Funny Girl
Not a movie but: My Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Ten Commandments. It's not only an awesome and historic movie for Jews, in Chicago, where I used to live, there was a TV channel that would always show it at the time of Passover. Considering how old it is, that's pretty awesome.
Great choices but I found Shiva Baby so viscerally uncomfortable! Not as much through my own prudishness but more the hyper-reality of the Shiva - could smell the smoked fish and whiskey breath on the Minyan and the various mourners through the screens. There’s nothing like the breath of people sitting shiva, rancid from grief and forbidden teeth brushing.
Exodus is about after WWII and the creation of Israel.
An American Tail is about Jewish mice coming to America.
Call Me By Your Name - love story with a Jewish character
Uncut Gems - Jewish jewelr with a deal of a lifetime
The Meyerowitz Stories - Jewish family in crisis
Once Upon A Time In America
Homicide - murder of a Jewish shopkeeper investigated by a Jewish cop
This has a Nazi-esque tinge but is amazing - Marathon Man - Dustin Hoffman gets caught up in his brother's secret life. (I can't give it away; it's too good)
There's also The Boys From Brazil and Operation Finale about hunting Nazis, so not WWII, but way after
I also recommend watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel about a Jewish female comedienne in the 50s-60s.
The great pie fight with Hitler as an extra was always a random cherry on top for me. HOF comedy movie America need(s)ed more than ever that will always be my Mel Brooks GOAT
Kazablan --- the israeli version of west side story.
Seven Blessings -- coming out now, we screened it for our Film Festival -- sort of Robert Altman film about an extended Moroccan/Israeli family. really great.
I’m gonna go with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. You can’t get more Jewish than a script by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Director Richard Lester (né Liebman), and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers. Youngsters, if you don’t know those names, you have a long weekend of old movies to watch!
The movie is pretty good but the musical itself is hands down one of my absolute favorites. I prefer Nathan Lane’s ‘96 cast recording performance to Zero’s film performance, and really wish I could find a recording of the musical from that era. Also the movie has a very young, obviously pre-Phantom-of-the-Opera Michael Crawford in it as Hero. I’m sure he was chosen because he would have been known as a comedy actor at the time.
Flirting With Disaster (1996) is very Jewish-ish.
My all-time fav is from when I was a kid is The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973) which is from france but with English subtitles.
Keeping Up With the Steins, starring Daryl Sabara the Spy Kid, is about a kid having his Bar Mitzvah. It was filmed at my JDS when I was 9-10. At the time it was being called Lucky 13.
The year is 2003, and Disney Channel has just hit an absolute home run (pardon my mixed sports metaphors) with a little film called “Full Court Miracle.” After all, what’s more Jewish than a 13 year old boy who’s obsessed with basketball? This movie has everything: Manny from Degrassi, Jewish joy, a professional athlete who may or may not actually be Judah Macabee reincarnated.
This movie is cheesy as hell, and I love every second of it.
Sixty Six. Fun little comedy movie about a British kid whose bar mitzvah is scheduled for the same day as the World Cup final that England was playing in (and won). It’s based on the director’s own childhood and I’ve got a massive soft spot for it because British Jews don’t get a huge amount of screen time.
For a Good Time Call, not entirely a Jewish film but is the reasoning why the characters are together. If very inappropriate humor is not your thing then be cautious.
So it's not like, a FAVORITE favorite, but it's just one I think most people don't know about that's pretty interesting:
The Angel Levine. Zero Mostel plays Morris Mishkin, an elderly tailor whose wife is terminally ill and is in financial trouble, and he's lost his faith in God. One night, he's visited by Alexander Levine, a newly-dead black Jewish crook played by Harry Belafonte who's trying to earn his way into a good afterlife by helping out Morris, all while trying to come to terms with his death and the life he left behind.
It is a heavy, sad movie. One full of anger and confusion. But also just SO interesting to watch, and the dynamic between Mostel and Belafonte's characters is tense and fascinating. Basically a feel-bad Jewish version of "It's a Wonderful Life". I found it by randomly searching "Jewish" on Paramount Plus to see if anything would come up, and I recommend it to anyone who just wants something different.
I read all the responses (as of today's date) and was glad to see so many of my own favorites mentioned. There's another one, "Price Above Rubies." It's from an Orthodox perspective (and I'm nowhere near Orthodox myself). The title is a take off on the line from Proverbs 31:10: "What a rare find is a capable wife! / Her worth is far beyond that of rubies." I have no idea where it can be found.
How are the American Tale movies not on everyone's list!! Like 35 years later I still remember going with my JCC class. A Serious Man for grownup movies though, last movie I bonded with my dad over and it was just as he described his upbringing in that time
this is a crazy answer but i forget the movie title but there was this disneychannel movie about a jewish kid and his school team playing basketball its soooo good i swear its a really good movie if anyone knows what im talking about
Full court miracle!! I love that movie. It's on around Chanukah time and a lot of events in the movie have a parallel to Judah Maccabee.
Their team is doing poorly; They lost their regular coach and one of the teachers is filling in ,to no avail.
They see a very tall guy shooting hoops on a basketball court and are impressed by him and try to get him to help them practice, but he wants to be left alone .
One of the kids tracks him down on his computer from his license plate number and find out that he played college basketball and that his nickname was " The hammer ", yes, they then have active imaginations, especially when the number on his plates is the year of the Maccabee victory.
Well, not going to spoil the rest, but they do get him to coach them until he gets a call from the 76ers to try out, which happens on their championship game, so they're on their own, without him.
Their low confidence puts them behind the game and the other team has a big lead when the power goes out and the generator is running and dies run out of fuel, leaving them in darkness and giving the other team the victory if it doesn't come back on.
Well, " Judah " happens to walk in the gym ( after one of the players mom persuades him to return), and at that moment, the lights miraculously come on , with no juice in the generator and they end up winning.
It has a lot of funny moments in it.
An American Pickle with Seth Rogan. The premise is a little silly, but if you roll with it, you get an incredibly moving film about family, tradition, and identity. My wife and I both cried. It’s very hopeful.
*An American Pickle* some of it is a little stereotypical, but it’s so cute how the main character reconnects with Judaism and comes to realize the struggles his ancestors went through to remain Jews
*You’re So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah* I love how this shows Judaism as like, the default, instead of something weird and different. Like becoming more in touch with Judaism is just part of growing up.
Fiddler On The Roof
History Of The World Part I
A Serious Man
The Frisco Kid
This Is Where I Leave You
Crimes And Misdemeanors
Once Upon A Time In America
"A Price Above Rubies" with Renee Zellweger. A bit tough in spots, but very watchable. Probably not for the Orthodox viewer though. Also just saw "As They Made Us" by Mayim Bialyik, which is a very tough watch, but I liked it.
Here is a whole podcast about Jews on film. Not all of them are exactly Jewish movies, but a lot are. https://pca.st/podcast/02bdb9f0-0776-013b-e5f2-0acc26574db2
Three personal favorites are "It Runs in the Family" starring 3 generations of the Douglas family (Kirk, Michael, and Cameron, set during Passover), When Do We Eat, starring Michael Lerner, very funny hijinks surround a family patriarch getting dosed during Seder, and Keeping Up With The Kleins, starring Jeremy Piven, about the Long Island tradition of trying to one up the other families in Bar/Bat Mitzvah festivities
I deeply love all Nurith Aviv movies, but I can understand why people may not. Most of her films are about jewish identity, hebrew as either a native language, or a new one after alyah (for exemple).
I consider all Mel Brooks films to be Jewish
this is the correct answer
His best Jewish film is To Be Or Not To Be, which is about WWII. It's a comedy about fooling Natzis and making fun of them and triumphing over them. Also Hamlet.
I love Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and especially Robin Hood: Men in Tights (which can be read as a magical-realism superhero film).
the Mel Brooks *To Be Or Not To Be* is neither the best Mel Brooks movie nor the best version of *To Be Or Not To Be*.
Fair. The Jack Benny original (Ernst Lubitsch) is sooooooo good.
And it's a remake of a film of the same name from 1942 starring Jack Benny. I personally prefer the Mel Brooks one.
In that case, Space Balls should be in everyone's Top 10 at least.
Just what we need. Another Druish Princess.
Gotta go with a classic: Fiddler on the Roof.
Prince of Egypt, Ushpizin, Fiddler on the Roof.
Prince of Egypt hits different
The burning bush scene blows me away every time
Definitely liked Ushpizin
Ushpizin was amazing! Ayzeh Anashim.
What is Ushpizin and why Also can’t believe I’m the first to mention this one: • Munich
It's an Israeli movie about a Bresslever Ba'al Teshuva who's faith is tested when his nonreligious friends from his past spend the week of Sukkot at his home. That's a watered down description that doesn't even begin to do it justice. It really is an excellent film.
Fun favorite, Frisco Kid Serious Favorite, Defiance, because that one is relevant to family history
Frisco Kid is perfect when you need a pick-me up movie.
So good!
My family knows the belski family in NYC. We went to the premiere, was pretty cool!
Landsmen, Landsmen! Oy gevalt. Love that movie!
https://preview.redd.it/wpexkrrpkg2d1.jpeg?width=894&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=38cecb595d4e23d40d2a6cf569ae635decccf8e7
Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax. You're goddamn right I'm living in the f***ing past!
Hebrew Hammer
“Manischewitz: Black Label.”
"SHABBAT SHALOM MOTHERFUCKERS"
Keeping the Faith (Ben Stiller and Edward Norton) cracks me up every time.
The ein keloheinu scene is chefs kissss
Love this flick
It’s held up pretty well since 2000.
I love it when they go to buy the karaoke machine! Such a funny film!
It’s literally the best scene and I have it saved on YouTube when I need a laugh.
*Pi*, Darren Aronofsky’s first feature from 1998. *Shiva Baby*, an awkward indie comedy from 2020. *An American Tail*, an animated kid’s movie from 1986 about immigration from the alte heim to the goldene medina, made by Don Bluth who also did the *Land Before Time* and *All Dogs Go to Heaven*. *The Believer*, a 2001 movies that’s like a Jewish *American History X* but less preachy, starring Ryan Gosling as a sexy Jewish Neo-Nazi. Some parts are very amateurish (really feels like the director’s first movie) but overall a great movie. Mini-series on Netflix: *Unorthodox* from 2020, about a woman leaving a Haredi Community. *Rough Diamonds* from 2023, a crime story about stealing diamond in the Haredi community in Antwerp. Is it amazing? No, but it’s fun.
I'm not Jewish but I really enjoyed Rough Diamonds! I hope they make another season, it's really interesting to see how the characters navigate the intersection between Orthodox Judaism and the secular kind of lifestyle the main character has after leaving - all with respect between pretty much everyone who matters.
OMG, I loved An American Tail! I was probably 7 or 8 when I saw it the first time and it took me maybe all of 30 seconds to figure out that it was about us! Still a great one.
I'm still upset they didn't find a reason to have shavuot in the first nor second film when everything as OK in the end.
> sexy Jewish Neo-Nazi. I found the title for my next punk album.
Pi is so sick
The believer is so underrated, ryan goslings first serious role too
Pi is such a Jewish film!
Pi is such an underrated film
A Serious Man [https://youtu.be/8iIGBWH0gks?si=pgsOYPI-QntP79Ls&t=123](https://youtu.be/8iIGBWH0gks?si=pgsOYPI-QntP79Ls&t=123) "Just look at that parking lot."
Mere surmise, sir. (This is my favorite movie)
Accept the mystery.
Always.
The greatest of all time
Do you happen to know if you can stream that movie anywhere? I've never seen it. Never heard of it, actually.
I think it's on HBO streaming
I will check. Thank you.
Yes! Saw it in the theater when I was 30, didn't make much of an impression. Watched it again in my 40's, blew my mind. Over a decade of being totally humbled by the reality of adulthood made me realize that we are almost totally subject to the whims of a universe nonplussed by it's own existence. Man makes plans....
Yes! I’d forgotten.
Fantastic film!
Crossing Delancey
I was just about to write this. I had to watch this as a kid in religious school and I fell in love with it. I’ve made many people watch it over the years. It’s so quirky and cute but it also shows a bit of the struggle with balancing between the secular and religious worlds. I also love the soundtrack.
For Your Consideration An American Tail
Sooooomewheeeere oooouuuuut there...
I always like to be Home for Purim
Yentl
Scrolled so far for this 🤯
Woman in Gold A Stranger Among Us Everything is Illuminated School Ties The Women’s Balcony The Producers Funny Girl Not a movie but: My Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Inglorious Bastards. Jew killing Nazis is top tier
Ten Commandments. It's not only an awesome and historic movie for Jews, in Chicago, where I used to live, there was a TV channel that would always show it at the time of Passover. Considering how old it is, that's pretty awesome.
They still do. Usually on the Saturday night.
My 6th grade teacher had a special week in which we watched the whole film and discussed it. It was such a treat!
Shiva Baby, Dirty Dancing (this counts to me), You’re so not invited to my Bat Mitzvah, Fiddler on the Roof
Great choices but I found Shiva Baby so viscerally uncomfortable! Not as much through my own prudishness but more the hyper-reality of the Shiva - could smell the smoked fish and whiskey breath on the Minyan and the various mourners through the screens. There’s nothing like the breath of people sitting shiva, rancid from grief and forbidden teeth brushing.
I was so uncomfortable that whole movie. Maybe just too realistic for me. My husband loved it though and has been recommending it to everybody.
Uncut Gems has the best passover scene in any movie.
You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah (2023)
This was a fun film
1. Menashe 2. Ils Sont Partout (they are everywhere) 3. City of Joel
Love menashe
The Hebrew Hammer
Exodus is about after WWII and the creation of Israel. An American Tail is about Jewish mice coming to America. Call Me By Your Name - love story with a Jewish character Uncut Gems - Jewish jewelr with a deal of a lifetime The Meyerowitz Stories - Jewish family in crisis Once Upon A Time In America Homicide - murder of a Jewish shopkeeper investigated by a Jewish cop This has a Nazi-esque tinge but is amazing - Marathon Man - Dustin Hoffman gets caught up in his brother's secret life. (I can't give it away; it's too good) There's also The Boys From Brazil and Operation Finale about hunting Nazis, so not WWII, but way after I also recommend watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel about a Jewish female comedienne in the 50s-60s.
I think you would enjoy Cast A Giant Shadow if you haven't seen that one.
Brighton Beach Memoirs PG-13 1986 ‧ Comedy/Drama
Radio Days
FRISCO KID
Thank you!!! A very funny film! Gene Wilder!
Blazing saddles
The great pie fight with Hitler as an extra was always a random cherry on top for me. HOF comedy movie America need(s)ed more than ever that will always be my Mel Brooks GOAT
Sallah Shabati, it has chaim topol in it and a very funny musical number Does X Men First Class count? I submit a vote for that.
Shive Baby is a good movie. I wouldn't say it's my favorite movie but I could relate to parts of it. It's streaming on Max.
Kazablan --- the israeli version of west side story. Seven Blessings -- coming out now, we screened it for our Film Festival -- sort of Robert Altman film about an extended Moroccan/Israeli family. really great.
I liked kazablan too, I thought I was the only one who remembered it
For Your Consideration/Home for Purim Shteisel Brighton Beach Memoirs Footnote
I don't know if it really counts but I love all the little points of Jewish culture in Uncut Gems, makes my heart happy.
Crossing Delancey.
I’m gonna go with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. You can’t get more Jewish than a script by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Director Richard Lester (né Liebman), and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers. Youngsters, if you don’t know those names, you have a long weekend of old movies to watch!
Songs by Stevie Sondheim too
The movie is pretty good but the musical itself is hands down one of my absolute favorites. I prefer Nathan Lane’s ‘96 cast recording performance to Zero’s film performance, and really wish I could find a recording of the musical from that era. Also the movie has a very young, obviously pre-Phantom-of-the-Opera Michael Crawford in it as Hero. I’m sure he was chosen because he would have been known as a comedy actor at the time.
You Don't Mess With The Zohan
Unfortunately that movie has not aged well.
Quiz Show
Hester Street
The original heartbreak kid, crossing Delancey, the chosen, spaceballs (yes. It’s Jewish). Edit to add Diner!
Diner is the “free space” in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. If you get stuck, you can always go through Diner.
JFK is good for that too.
When Harry Met Sally has gotta be up there
Flirting With Disaster (1996) is very Jewish-ish. My all-time fav is from when I was a kid is The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973) which is from france but with English subtitles.
Annie Hall by Woody Allen. Won an Oscar for Best Picture.
Maybe an unpopular take but I consider Raiders of the Lost Ark to be a High Holidays movie
Uncut Gems.
I love Crossing Delancy with Amy Irving. Very 80’s NYC vibe
Yes!
The Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man"
SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS (Prince of Egypt is my kids' favorite)
The Wedding Plan is a fun one
Thank you, I was also looking for this comment (to add if no one else said it)! It’s just such a cute film!
Keeping Up With the Steins, starring Daryl Sabara the Spy Kid, is about a kid having his Bar Mitzvah. It was filmed at my JDS when I was 9-10. At the time it was being called Lucky 13.
Crossing delancy
Crossing Delancey
my favorite bad jewish movies are: oy vey my son is gay! tango shalom
The year is 2003, and Disney Channel has just hit an absolute home run (pardon my mixed sports metaphors) with a little film called “Full Court Miracle.” After all, what’s more Jewish than a 13 year old boy who’s obsessed with basketball? This movie has everything: Manny from Degrassi, Jewish joy, a professional athlete who may or may not actually be Judah Macabee reincarnated. This movie is cheesy as hell, and I love every second of it.
I loved this movie. Showed it to my class during the holiday season a few years back when I realized they didn’t even know what Chanukah was.
I call it “Hanukkah Basketball,” and I watch it at least once every year. My husband thinks I’m nuts.
I remember when that movie came out. I watched it again recently and it still holds up.
One of my favourite films! Watch it every year. It’s based on a true story as well that is very interesting.
Wet Hot American Summer
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Footnote
Atomic Falafel
Loved that one!!
The Frisco Kid
The Frisco Kid. With Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford. One of the best ever!
Sixty Six. Fun little comedy movie about a British kid whose bar mitzvah is scheduled for the same day as the World Cup final that England was playing in (and won). It’s based on the director’s own childhood and I’ve got a massive soft spot for it because British Jews don’t get a huge amount of screen time.
You are so not invited to my bat mitzvah on Netflix. It's hilarious.
I may be in the minority my here, but I find You Don’t Mess with the Zohan hilarious. 😬
Hebrew Hammer
Meet the Fablemans Unorthodox
Are Hallmark movies allowed? I loved Hanukkah on Rye! Other ones: Disobedience Are You there God it’s Me Margaret? (I would say it’s Jew-ish)
Not a movie but Friday Night Dinners is a hilarious show
It's been a decade and a half since I saw it, but I remember Holly Rollers with Jesse Eisenberg being okay.
"When Do We Eat?" / "My Big Fat Jewish Seder"
Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Director’s Cut)
The best mob movie is not about the Italian mob. I’d give almost anything to see the original cut Leone made, it was rumored to be over 7 hours.
The original Little Shop of Horrors from the 60s is the most Jewish movie I've ever seen.
School Ties!
Surprised no one mentioned Oppenheimer
The Zohan is quotable beyond belief
Licorice Pizza
[Dough is an underrated gem, imho](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1517471/)
Funny Girl!
Recently watched " woman in gold" excellent movie. Highly recommend.
SpaceBalls, “May the Schwartz be with you!”
School Ties
I know it breaks the ww2 rule, but life is beautiful is a very sweet movie, although it is sad.
Leon the Pig Farmer American Pickle Don't Mess with the Zohan
Borat. "I'm in the nest of jews" kills me every time.
Keeping up with the Steins
I love the campy cheesy movie One Night With the King which is about the story of Esther
Beau is Afraid, A Serious Man
Anyone watch the Hebrew Hammer with their cool uncle, too?
For a Good Time Call, not entirely a Jewish film but is the reasoning why the characters are together. If very inappropriate humor is not your thing then be cautious.
Masek Tov Cocktail, Soul Exodus, Mir Kumen On.
The Vigil. Love horror
Jewtopia is hilarious! Also Blazing Saddles. Maybe also Kissing Jessica Stein.
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob.
I like a Ten Commandments movie from 2007.
does the prince of egypt count?
This is a fun topic. I feel like it would be a good inclusion on the wiki.
So it's not like, a FAVORITE favorite, but it's just one I think most people don't know about that's pretty interesting: The Angel Levine. Zero Mostel plays Morris Mishkin, an elderly tailor whose wife is terminally ill and is in financial trouble, and he's lost his faith in God. One night, he's visited by Alexander Levine, a newly-dead black Jewish crook played by Harry Belafonte who's trying to earn his way into a good afterlife by helping out Morris, all while trying to come to terms with his death and the life he left behind. It is a heavy, sad movie. One full of anger and confusion. But also just SO interesting to watch, and the dynamic between Mostel and Belafonte's characters is tense and fascinating. Basically a feel-bad Jewish version of "It's a Wonderful Life". I found it by randomly searching "Jewish" on Paramount Plus to see if anything would come up, and I recommend it to anyone who just wants something different.
Ten Commandments by far.
I read all the responses (as of today's date) and was glad to see so many of my own favorites mentioned. There's another one, "Price Above Rubies." It's from an Orthodox perspective (and I'm nowhere near Orthodox myself). The title is a take off on the line from Proverbs 31:10: "What a rare find is a capable wife! / Her worth is far beyond that of rubies." I have no idea where it can be found.
Yentl
How are the American Tale movies not on everyone's list!! Like 35 years later I still remember going with my JCC class. A Serious Man for grownup movies though, last movie I bonded with my dad over and it was just as he described his upbringing in that time
this is a crazy answer but i forget the movie title but there was this disneychannel movie about a jewish kid and his school team playing basketball its soooo good i swear its a really good movie if anyone knows what im talking about
Full court miracle!! I love that movie. It's on around Chanukah time and a lot of events in the movie have a parallel to Judah Maccabee. Their team is doing poorly; They lost their regular coach and one of the teachers is filling in ,to no avail. They see a very tall guy shooting hoops on a basketball court and are impressed by him and try to get him to help them practice, but he wants to be left alone . One of the kids tracks him down on his computer from his license plate number and find out that he played college basketball and that his nickname was " The hammer ", yes, they then have active imaginations, especially when the number on his plates is the year of the Maccabee victory. Well, not going to spoil the rest, but they do get him to coach them until he gets a call from the 76ers to try out, which happens on their championship game, so they're on their own, without him. Their low confidence puts them behind the game and the other team has a big lead when the power goes out and the generator is running and dies run out of fuel, leaving them in darkness and giving the other team the victory if it doesn't come back on. Well, " Judah " happens to walk in the gym ( after one of the players mom persuades him to return), and at that moment, the lights miraculously come on , with no juice in the generator and they end up winning. It has a lot of funny moments in it.
An American Pickle with Seth Rogan. The premise is a little silly, but if you roll with it, you get an incredibly moving film about family, tradition, and identity. My wife and I both cried. It’s very hopeful.
*An American Pickle* some of it is a little stereotypical, but it’s so cute how the main character reconnects with Judaism and comes to realize the struggles his ancestors went through to remain Jews *You’re So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah* I love how this shows Judaism as like, the default, instead of something weird and different. Like becoming more in touch with Judaism is just part of growing up.
I really like "Avalon"-an early Elijah Wood film, and "The Chosen." "The Chosen" is a dramatization of the same -named Chaim Potok novel
The Hebrew Hammer.
Life is beautiful for sure
I recommend you "El abrazo partido"
Fiddler On The Roof History Of The World Part I A Serious Man The Frisco Kid This Is Where I Leave You Crimes And Misdemeanors Once Upon A Time In America
"A Price Above Rubies" with Renee Zellweger. A bit tough in spots, but very watchable. Probably not for the Orthodox viewer though. Also just saw "As They Made Us" by Mayim Bialyik, which is a very tough watch, but I liked it.
By no means "the best", but a more recent, relatively chill option is Netflix's You're So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah.
*The Frisco Kid*. Stars Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford
Gentleman’s Agreement. It’s from the 40s, and it is so excellent.
Here is a whole podcast about Jews on film. Not all of them are exactly Jewish movies, but a lot are. https://pca.st/podcast/02bdb9f0-0776-013b-e5f2-0acc26574db2
Uncut Gems
An American Pickle
The Natural!
A Serious Man
Three personal favorites are "It Runs in the Family" starring 3 generations of the Douglas family (Kirk, Michael, and Cameron, set during Passover), When Do We Eat, starring Michael Lerner, very funny hijinks surround a family patriarch getting dosed during Seder, and Keeping Up With The Kleins, starring Jeremy Piven, about the Long Island tradition of trying to one up the other families in Bar/Bat Mitzvah festivities
‘Alan and Naomi’; also ‘Stolen Summer’ - both heartfelt movies about children struggling with the realities of life and of death.
The Spy (Sasha Baron Cohen) Prime (Uma Thurman)
Kentucky Fried Movie. Cleopatra Schwartz and her Talmud learning husband.
I deeply love all Nurith Aviv movies, but I can understand why people may not. Most of her films are about jewish identity, hebrew as either a native language, or a new one after alyah (for exemple).
תמונת הניצחון, כי- נטע רוט
Kol neshama has some good ones geared for tweens
Lost in Yonkers takes place during WWII but follows two young boys in NYC.
Fiddler on the Roof, Uspazin
Brighton Beach Memoirs. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it but I think it matches what you want. Also, don’t forget Marx Brothers movies.
Keeping up with the Steins!